Self-confessed chocoholic and undiagnosed crazy
person, Simone can be found climbing Himalayan mountaintops like a ninja, sky
diving backwards and rubbing shoulders with billionaires. She is also full of
crap, but can read backwards and upside down.

Simone loves all things
Disney and alcoholic, and is rarely seen not reading, writing or wearing
lipstick, usually of the red variety.

“Take a deep breath,” he moved
on without comment, “duck ye head under the water, and exhale through ye nose.
When ye run outta air, pop ye head back up.” I bit my lip and nodded, but I was
less than confident.

“But, what if, what if the
water goes up my nose?” I whispered. I sounded like a small child, but I was
too panicked to care.

“Hold ye nose, love. Like
this.” He pinched his nose and dropped under. It was silly, but I gasped. A
second later he reappeared, shaking his head like a dog, spraying water all
over me. I smiled as I tried to hide from the spray. He seemed to know
just how to diffuse me. It was bizarre, to say the least, but I was a little
grateful.

“Yer turn. Do you need me to
hold ye hand?” And sweet Drew was gone. He was back to his usual self.

I scoffed at that offer.
“No.” But it might have been nice.

“One. Two.” I pinched my
nose, and my pulse beat a million miles per minute. “Three!”

And I was under.

Oh God, oh God, breathe, no,
don't breathe, just … don't breathe.

So I counted. I counted to
ten and that was enough. I broke the surface, and gasped for breathe.

“Ye did good. Just next time,
breathe first, aye?” Oh, yeah.

“Yeah, okay. Now what?”

“Now ye try holding yer
breath for longer.”

“Really?”

“Aye. The fun comes later.”

I raised an eyebrow. The boys
had clearly started to rub off on me. He smirked in return.

“How long can you hold your
breath?”

“A while. Why? Ye want to
challenge me?”

Do I? “Always.”

He smiled, and shook his
head.

“One. Don't forget to take a
deep breath in. Three!” I sucked a huge breath in and we ducked under the cool
water.

I watched a little in awe as
tiny bibles left Drew's nose. His hair sort of hovered in the water. He looked
so beautiful that I found it easier to be still under the water just staring at
him. He wiggled his eyebrows at me and it took all my strength not to laugh,
expelling all my air. I did, however, poke my tongue out at him. It wasn’t the
smartest thing to do, as when I pulled it back in it, tasted like manky
seawater, and I wrinkled my face up in disgust. Surprisingly, I still managed
to hold the little breath I had left in. Drew, however, lost all control at my
tongue poking or face pulling, I wasn’t sure which, most likely both. He
laughed heartily, expelling all his air in a great, big, gust, and had to go
back up for air. I broke the surface to hear Drew coughing and spluttering.

“Ha! I won.” I’d be lying if
it didn’t give me a little satisfaction that I sort-of won, by default but a
win all the same.

“Ye’re a pisser. And ye
didn’t win, ye cheated.”

“Oh, and you weren’t trying
to cheat by wiggling your eyebrows at me? All’s fair in love and war, baby!”